Green for All Poll: Communities of Color View Climate Change As Imminent Threat

GritoBlast! — JULY 28 — Green For All (GFA) released the results of a first of its kind national poll on the state of climate change among communities of color. According to the poll, 75 percent of minority voters pay attention to new information on climate change and 68 percent feel it is an issue we need to be worried about right now, not something we can put off into the future.

Minority voters not only care about climate change, but support climate action:

75 percent agree that new EPA carbon pollution standards will spur research and innovations to keep energy prices low and create whole new industries with good-paying jobs

70 percent of minority voters said that they were more likely to support candidates willing to expand resources to tackle the issue and grow new industries over those arguing that addressing climate change will cost jobs and hurt our economy

62 percent say not enough attention and resources are being devoted to climate change

At a more fundamental level, minority voters make sense of climate change and environmental issues through the prism of their values and pragmatism.

A plurality of voters, 31 percent, identified our moral duty to leave our children a habitable planet as the most significant reason for supporting new carbon emissions standards.
The economic impacts of rising energy costs and gas prices were first and foremost in voters’ minds, followed closely by health impacts of exposure to air pollution, water pollution, and toxic waste.